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Originally Posted by Damburger
Evil doesn't come into it. Greed simply doesn't look ahead. People will consume almost all the resources on Earth before it becomes viable to get them from other planets - and by that point we might not be able to get to other planets.
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Actually, I think evil and greed have historically been forward looking. Hitler was greedy for liebensraum and wanted the money in the banks run by the Jews. Japan wanted oil and other resources before they attacked the US. It's the contented populace that doesn't bother going to the polls for a change in fortune.
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This I agree with - but the people who leave Earth won't leave because they think theres gold in them thar asteroids - they'll leave because they feel they were born on the wrong planet in the first place.
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Will they do the Time Warp dance?
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If they leave, only the insanely wealthy could afford to be supplied from Earth, and there are too few of them to found a colony. Any colonnisation effort would have to be a one shot, self supporting effort.
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Price Controls.
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I really think this is a bad analogy. Ocean travel is far easier than space travel, and the new world had resources the old world did not. There is likely nothing on the Moon or Mars or anywhere else in the solar system we cannot acquire on Earth. (I've yet to be convinced that the whole Helium 3 thing is ever going to be worthwhile)
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There's one thing we can get on earth and no where else, right now: Skies of blue and couds of white, the bright blessed day and the dark sacred night. And we think to ourselves: what a wonderful world. We won't go into space to find it anywhere else. We will go to space to keep it clean on earth, by making our messes out there.